Lights, camera and organic action for James Cameron

Hollywood director James Cameron's latest venture is a new organic food store. Photo / Chris Pizzello

Hollywood director James Cameron's latest venture is a new organic food store selling fresh produce from his Wairarapa farm.

Food Forest Organics, which caters to a growing movement of people eating food that has less impact on the environment, opened last month in Greytown's Baillie House.

General manager and chef David Futter said there was a real movement towards plant-based diets, coupled with an upsurge in people becoming more interested in cooking.

Cameron, whose blockbuster movies include Avatar and Titanic, and his wife Suzy Amis Cameron have campaigned for people to move to a plant-based diet to help reduce carbon emissions.

Advocates of the diet say growing plants for food generally has less of a negative impact on the environment than raising livestock, as livestock have to eat a lot of plants to produce a smaller amount of food.

Mr Futter, a chef who owned restaurants in Australia before moving back to New Zealand six years ago, became involved in the store after cooking for the couple, who told him about their idea for it.

"When I first got the job cooking for them, I thought vegans, really?"

They ended up loving his food and he kept working for them.

The store sells 95 per cent organic food, with fresh produce coming direct from the Cameron family farm near Featherston, as well as walnut oil, hemp seed oil and honey.

Among other things, the "one-stop shop" has beetroot noodles, coconut chocolate butter, and quinoa pasta and their cafe menu uses ingredients from the store.